Ribbon, skiing and mountain biking

When I still was a kid and couldn't always afford a lift ticket, I had concocted, back in my native Haute-Savoie, a nasty downhill course starting high into the woods and meandering down into a wide open meadow below. I had named it “speed ribbon.” I would tuck it down, dodge the trees as well as they'd let me and after an impressive hockey stop at the bottom, I felt quite proud of myself. Since that time, I've always seen skiing as that unfolding ribbon; that's right, smooth, well rounded, with no crease or kink of any kind. You could call it perfect smoothness or doing as little as humanly possible while gliding.

This has become my approach whenever I ski or I ride down my mountain bike these days. I visualize that rolling ribbon and stay with it; it goes where I need it to go, slows me down by hugging up the hill as a half-pipe would make you do, but always economizing speed, momentum and steering. I was thinking about it yesterday as I was on my bike flying down a single track, a bit too well defined and limited for my taste, but reminding me that the ski season is just around the corner...